Hello! Well it's been a hot minute so we have some things to actually talk about. For those of you who follow us on Instagram, you've probably seen that we've been on a mission to rid ourselves of unsavoury followers and, in a shocking sign of self-awareness, we have said goodbye to a few. Bit like when we had a Trump cull. We don't know if we waved goodbye to actual bigots or just people who think we should post pretty bikes and not have an opinion about nothing else, but either way...not our peeps so... seeee ya!
What have we been up to? What haven't we? There's been something in the air over here in Norfolk and there's been a lot of ideas starting to come to fruition, but let's start with a not-so-humble brag. Our balance bike was featured on The Radavist. Now. There was a time when we were in a bit of a huff, wondering how you get featured by John and his band of merry cyclist peeps but as soon as we chilled out, made some genuine connections with likeminded people and stopped stressing that maybe we aren't trendy enough, boom! It started happening. We couldn't be more grateful either. We know we are still pretty understated and quiet on the scene and the fact that we're celebrating our sixth anniversary of full-time August Bicycles next month might surprise a few of you, but hey. We're still here, we still enjoy it and we haven't started building just any old thing to pay the bills. So we consider things to be pretty positive.
Back to the balance bike. You've all probably seen it by now, but the words for the post on The Radavist were written by Mrs A. She's gotten pretty modest in her 30s and doesn't like to show off about things but she's a fantastic writer and getting a piece published by John was a real treat. The perfect crossover between our worlds and hopefully, it'll give you all a little insight into us as people and parents, not just bike builders! Read the feature here. We will get the full gallery up on the website this week too.
Wow. Those wheels just keep on coming, in direct proportion to how much the skin on my hands is leaving. When you take on these big batch orders, they seem like such a great idea but one thing keeps that positivity in mind; working with good people. If it wasn't for the absolutely brilliant client, we might be a bit sick of wheels but each one is a nice reminder of the relationships we've built over the years. That all being said, we are hoping to deliver them all next week (pending a final hub delivery) and we might be looking forward to getting our spare room back.
Let's talk fashion. Ha ha. We've been thinking about t-shirts and things like that for a while now. The problem is, we find so many cycling-related ones really cringe. Plus, unless you have bought something from us, it's unlikely that you'll want a tee with a massive August logo emblazoned across it. So... how do we avoid the pitfalls of naff slogans and self-promotion? With Dolly Parton, of course!
These are the first prototypes that Tim over at Bike Ninja is kindly creating for us. We are sourcing organic cotton so that our eco credentials remain intact and sorry to anyone that isn't a baseball or ringer tee fan, but it's Dolly. They need to be a little 70s in style! We are going to have some mugs in this design too and, potentially, screen prints. There's another design in the works too, once again being created by Steve over at Homage Cycling Art, who is our amazing artist of choice! We'd love your thoughts on these tees, so don't be shy... let us know on Instagram. And thank you Mrs A for having one of your weird dreams that made this t-shirt come into being. Once tees are finalised, we will pop a pre-order on our shop.
What else? Ooooh. A rather nice and unusual tamper. We don't often get creative input from tamper customers so it was a fun change to mix things up and do something a little more unusual. We were sent a lovely Campagnolo Record number with a specific request to retain the square bearing preload adjuster. Et voila!
And now, something for all the machine fanatics out there. The Bridgeport is finally up and running! We are filling the workshop with enormous machinery, slowly but surely, and we snagged the Bridgey for something of a steal, locally. But it's been sat all sad in the corner, with its invertor, for a few months. Well. Yesterday, good friend and sparky supreme, Scott from Eastern Electrical came on over and got her running.
There are a lot of plans that can be put in motion now and ideas that can be prototyped, so there's a lot of excitement bubbling away. Less for Mrs A though, who knows she won't see me after baby bedtime because I'll be tinkering. Just as a nice thank you to Scott, here's the best picture of us together. You're welcome dude. Look at that premium hunk in the middle though. Ahem.
Oh and here's something random. I've suffered from migraines for a number of years now and yesterday, we finally made the connection that I always have one after I've exercised, by going out on my bike. Anybody else experienced this? Any help or advice would be appreciated as that's going to be a bit of a problem!
Bragging about The Radavist, telling you about t-shirts, moaning about wheels... yup. That seems to be about it for this week. Although Mrs A has a granola bites recipe that can be made with some protein powder. Anyone interested in that? She'll add it in the next blog if you're looking for healthy-ish vegan energy snacks?
Rad peeps of the week:
All our amazing supporters that visit our Buy Me A Coffee page. You may not know, but these kind donations not only pay for things like t-shirt prototypes, but also donations to causes we feel really strongly about. Gotta pass it on guys.
Scott Bishop. You're a gentleman. And a scoundrel.
All the shitheads that stopped following us after we asked them to. You aren't rad peeps but it's great to see the back of you all.
Kyle for reminding us that love is the strongest force.
Our DPD man for swinging back around with our parts because a school bus crash in our village blocked it off for hours. Why can so many parents not drive? ARGH!
Dolly Parton. Eternal babe, icon and spirit animal. We salute you.
See you next time!